The present invention is directed to a mechanism for the placement of sleeves on elongated substrates such as wire-like members, including electrical wiring and cable.
With the advent of highly sophisticated and correspondingly complex electrical and electronic systems, a need has arisen for the detailed labeling of the individual wires and cables present in such a system to aid in assembly, repair and/or subsequent alteration of the electrical or electronic device. As a result of this need, flexible marker sleeves have been developed which are either color coded or include printed indicia for identification of a specific conductor. These sleeves are then positioned over the conductor are held by a variety of known methods. Naturally, the placement of such sleeves constitutes an additional step in the fabrication of the electrical or electronic component. Consequently, it is of benefit to facilitate the placement of such sleeves to reduce the cost of incorporating such convenient and often necessary marking systems.
Because of the large number of marker sleeves necessary in any complex electrical or electronic system and because of the variety of distinguishing markings required of such sleeves, it has been found advantageous to load unmarked sleeves onto fingers or holders extending from a continuous carrier belt. The sleeves are of heat recoverable material and can conveniently be positioned on the fingers in an expanded cylindrical shape. The sleeves are then at least partially heat recovered so that they are tightly and slidably arranged on the fingers. The heat recovery causes the sleeves to acquire a non-cylindrical shape such that printed indicia may be placed on these sleeves in a relatively continuous manner. Such a system is disclosed in coassigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,894,731 and 4,032,010, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A commercially successful apparatus for installing the sleeves on elongated substrates is described in coassigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,450, which is incorporated herein by this reference. This patent describes an apparatus for installing a plurality of sleeves simultaneously. The apparatus includes a base having a guideway for receiving the carrier belt and finger guideways for receiving fingers of the carrier belt with the non-cylindrical sleeves arranged thereon. A stripper assembly forces the sleeves from the carrier belt and a die is fixed to the base to receive the sleeves as they are stripped from the fingers, the die changing the shape of the non-cylindrical sleeves to a substantially cylindrical configuration.
Although the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,450 operates satisfactorily and has achieved commercial success, it has some limitations. Because a plurality of sleeves are installed on wires simultaneously, it is bulky and non-portable. Furthermore, after the sleeves are prepared for wire installation, it is necessary to open a top cover plate in order to manually place additional sleeves in the guideways.
Another difficulty with the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 4,034,450 is that a particular tool is designed for a particular carrier belt and sleeve, and cannot easily be adapted for different carrier belts and sleeves. To change the material of the sleeves, the size of the sleeves, and/or the spacing between adjacent sleeves, it is often necessary for the user to purchase a new tool.
In view of these problems, there is a need for an inexpensive, portable apparatus for installing sleeves on elongated substrates such as wires, where the apparatus is easily adapted for a variety of different sleeves and does not require reloading each time after a sleeve is installed on a substrate.